Facebook hate page prompts principal's legal fight

The suspended principal of an outback school is taking legal action against a former student and two parents, alleging they have defamed her on an online hate page.

Sue Burtenshaw, formerly Sue Lewis, was removed from Coober Pedy Area School in South Australia after complaints about her tough stance with some students and treatment of some parents.

In October the Teachers Appeal Board ruled a decision to permanently transfer her was unjust and unreasonable.

But in its final decision the board said she would not be reinstated.

The SA Education Department said the decision was made because students could be disrupted if she were reinstated but that the decision should not reflect adversely on Ms Burtenshaw's capabilities.

At the time, the Department said it would support Ms Burtenshaw to return as a principal in the public school system.

Now in a new legal battle, Ms Burtenshaw has launched proceedings in the Adelaide Magistrates Court, alleging she was defamed by the parents of two Coober Pedy students and a former student of Gepps Cross Girls High School, where she was principal between 2005 and 2007.

Another former Gepps Cross student and another parent of a student from Coober Pedy were discontinued from the action before a hearing this month.

Page removed

It is alleged the trio's comments were made on a Facebook page in January 2010 while the Education Department was investigating Ms Burtenshaw's management and disciplinary policies.

In court documents, Ms Burtenshaw says the comments were "maliciously and intentionally made to lower the opinion of the average person as to (her) professional abilities, morals and ethics".

The page was entitled "We do not want Sue Lewis back at Coober Pedy Area School at all" and has since been removed from Facebook.

Ms Burtenshaw says the comments suggest she is "corrupt, not fit to hold office and lacking in empathy for staff, students and parents" and that she "caused staff working under her to suffer stress-related illnesses".

She said the online comments had humiliated her and she had suffered hurt, distress and damage to her reputation.

She also claimed one of the parents made defamatory remarks about her during an interview on ABC Radio in July 2010.

Ms Burtenshaw is seeking an undisclosed figure in damages, but the figure cannot exceed $40,000 because it is being heard in the magistrates court jurisdiction.